When the black rabbit comes
by janelle1
Summary: Stories of what happens when the black rabbit comes to collect anothers soul. Chapter two is now up!
1. Default Chapter

When the black rabbit comes  
  
Chapter one  
  
Bluebottle  
  
The black rabbit of inle waited patiently in the shadows beneath the rustling branches of a willow tree. The gleeful sounds of a litter of playful rabbit kittens skipping and prancing along reached his ears from somewhere nearby. A few bucks and does nervously grazed on the hillside each one occasionally sitting back on their haunches to search the area for any signs of elil before settling back down on the ground. His eyes came to focus on an agouti doe, an aging marli laying on her side just opposite of him. Her body broke out into spasms as she struggled to stay alive, each painful breath she drew seeming to be her last.  
  
Inle looked upon this doe vast fully. The expression on her haggard face bore a lifetime of misery and grief. The warren she had belonged to had not been so kind to females. Most were kept under confinement, or more or less controlled by the bucks that ruled this place their entire lives. And this doe was no exception to this particular warren. A lifetime of being used for nothing but breeding, and digging had taken its toll on her. No longer able to bear kits, the old doe had been helped along, coldly murdered, or so to speak.  
  
The black rabbits gaze intently shifted from the rabbit laying before him, to another hopping away off in the distance. The buck, which had killed the old marli, was heartlessly making his way back to the warren without giving what he had just done another thought. Inle made a mental note about calling this bucks name in the near future if he didn't change his ways.  
  
He had made several trips to this warren for such an occasion. A place run mostly by bucks who made it a point to control the females, and each other. A hierarchy worse than that of what efrafa had once been. Many times he had visited here to claim the life of a rabbit that had tried to escape, had severely disobeyed an order, or as in this case, had been ruthlessly murdered for being old. And each time he brought them out of a life of suffering and misery, to spend an eternity in lord friths heaven.  
  
The buck stepped foreword as the doe closed her eyes to the life around her for the last time. The moment he had been waiting for to call her name finally approaching. A brief second where the doe had drawn her last breath, and made her last spasm. , "Bluebottle," He softly called her name, his voice taking on the sound of the rustling willow branches gently flowing in the breezes just above them.  
  
Bluebottle slowly opened her eyes, and focused on the black buck standing before her. Ever so slowly, the doe sat up. A great deal of new strength and energy that she had not felt for many seasons flowed through her body. Something she was not used to. She felt young again, and looked questioningly to the black rabbit of inle  
  
"Yes m'lord," she answered him.  
  
"Your time has come," He said to her, his voice changing to that of the sound the wind makes when it flows through the trees on a summer day, "come with me," he coaxed her along as he started to melt into the shadows of the shade of the tree, "you will be free from pain, where we are going."  
  
The doe, now full of youth and energy, took a final look at what had been her home for nearly all her life. Then she glanced down at her body, laying lifeless on the ground before her. Sighing, and turning around on her heals, she followed after Inle. Her spirit melted into the shadows as she was whisked away to eternal life by the black rabbit, never to set paw on his earth again. 


	2. The kitten

It was a sunny day, and lord Frith shone high in the sky over the lowly down. A small rabbit warren lay nestled in amongst the roots of a blossoming cherry tree, which grew on the sloping hillside. Still being developed, only a minimal amount of rabbits inhabited the area. Some of which were above ground at silflay at the moment.  
  
The Black Rabbit of Inle patiently sat on the ground, near the base of the tree, taking in all the surroundings, and watching a group of bucks and does loafing around nearby with some interest. But, he wasn't here for any of them today. Instead, his attention was diverted to a hole just inches from where he resided.  
  
A set of black tipped brown ears emerged out of the rabbit hole. Followed by a young doe poking her head out, scanning the area for any signs of elil, or predators with her large brown eyes. Satisfied, she moved her body upwards, and out into the open with a powerful thrust from her hind legs. The rabbit hopped away a bit, turned around back towards where she had emerged from, and sat erect with her ears foreword, and eyes focused. She scanned her surroundings once more for anything dangerous that may be lurking about, before calling her kits to come up to join her.  
  
Four tiny balls of dark brown fur hopped up silf one by one through the hole to join their marli. These kits were just barely three weeks old. Old enough to get their first glimpse of the world, and learn the skills that they would need to survive.  
  
The Black Rabbit of Inle's gaze came to rest on a small rabbit in this litter. Not the runt, but the third largest of the bunch. A doe, one of the strongest kits of the batch. He watched the youngster start taking her first taste of the sweet grass that grew beneath their feet, and knew that something would happen to her. Only he wasn't sure what would come along to end her life.  
  
Suddenly something struck down out of the sky like a shaft of lightening striking the earth. There was a flurry of brown fur and feathers. A long, drawn out, blood-curdling scream of terror and pain escaped from the dying kits lungs. Rabbits, including the marli, and the remainder of her litter, panicked, darting into the nearest holes for safety.  
  
The attack was finished in a matter of seconds. Death had come flying in on the wings of a hawk, while the Black Rabbit of Inle looked on. Things were quiet now. Rabbits were slowly emerging from the warren out silf, as if they had forgotten about what had just happened. There were no signs of the bird, or the kitten's body. Save for her soul that had lingered behind for him to collect.  
  
The doe looked up at the Black rabbit of Inle with curiosity, and wonder. She was too young to fully understand death, and probably didn't know what had just happened to her. She would never grow up or old, always staying the same age. Sure her mother would miss her. But, this was the reason why does had such large litters. Only a certain percentage of their babies made it to adulthood. In time, her heart would heal, and she would eventually have more litters during her life.  
  
The Black rabbit spoke to the kit as she danced and played around his forefeet, his voice sounding like that of a gently flowing brook, "Come my little one. It is time to go."  
  
He and the young one melted away into the air as they started the journey to the place where rabbits go after they die. 


End file.
